Friday, October 24, 2008

Debunked!

This bitch woke up at the crack of dawn...wince...and caught the news item about the woman in Pittsburgh who claimed that she, a campaign worker for McCain, had been mugged at knife point and assaulted by the carving of a “B” into her cheek because her alleged assailant (a black man, natch) was offended by the McCain sticker on her car.

Blink.

I’ve been getting my campaign on all day and missed the news…so I just checked in on this story and discovered that the woman has now admitted to making the story up.

Blink once again.

This bitch was skeptical from jump.

Didn’t the backward “B” give anyone pause?

Mercy.

But a bitch wishes the woman speedy recovery from all that ails her…

…and I hope this isn’t a sign of the drama to come as the campaign enters its final stage.

Is it wrong of me to feel a little uneasy about how this story has been pursued? I don't know if I want bloggers of any political stripe to be vetting the accounts of claimed (sexual?) abuse victims. I think I'd be upset if powerline or redstate tried to pick apart a case where a liberal claimed to be abused for her political advocacy. I guess I hope the police would be better able to handle this (yeah, realistic, I know).

Maybe I'm just not sure of the chronology of things. If this woman was publicizing her claims in a political way, it probably is fair to ask some questions. I know she posted something to her twitter account, but not if she did more. The obvious racial stereotypes her account played on were more than a bit troubling, but in the absence of anything else, what should one's first reaction be?

This is hearsay so it won't stand up in court but my friend just dug up a story from a plastic surgeon who claims the backwards "B" has characteristics of self inflicted wounds. Hesitation marks is what they called them, apparently people who cut themselves hesitate a lot in the process. I am assuming that an attacker would not. I won't even start on how many levels of wrong we're dealing with here.

I will be perfectly honest this whole thing enrages me beyond belief. She certainly was not so mentally ill that she had a problem playing into the black male savage attacker stereotype. The social construction of the black man as always violent or a threat has a long history in the US and has terrible consequences for them. How many black men have been wrongfully accused by white women looking to cover something up? I am not inclined to be forgiving.

It shouldn't surprise me that the media went nuts over this (now shown to be false) story but have virtually ignored a man being dragged to his death in Texas. No, not the one 10 years ago, the one last month...